World Seed

Author’s Corner: Hey everyone! The results of the poll are in, and once again you all surprised me with what you want! Don’t worry, getting this will not make him more OP than any other skill. Enjoy the chapter, as always!

While we were flying towards the asteroid belt, I decided to go ahead and specialize my Deus Ex body. Since this craft didn’t have any mining lasers or drills, I would turn my Deus Ex form into a mining body. After shifting over, I took a few moments to get over the disorientation of turning into a robot before I began buying upgrades. When I consulted with Celeste, she told me how to find the upgrade packages, which would often give free bonuses if you purchased the entire package.

Looking through, I found that there were five tiers of mining packages. They ranged from mining asteroids at the first tier, to mining entire moons or planets later on. Of course, they gradually became more expensive as well. The final mining package costed over a hundred upgrade points after buying the fourth one. The first package contained a basic mining laser and special inventory, which would automatically deposit any minerals I mine into it. The ‘free bonus’ from this package was getting a scanner to detect the location of ore veins.

Curious, I spent an extra ten upgrade points to unlock the second tier, which increased the power of the mining laser, the size of the ore inventory, the accuracy of the scanner, and also gave me an upgrade to my mana and mana regeneration. For this one, the ‘free bonus’ was a small upgrade inventory that I could store my laser in. The third tier of the mining package costed another twenty upgrade points. While I could afford it, I wanted to wait until I actually needed it. With the first two tiers, I should already be easily able to mine asteroids.

With that taken care of, I decided that it was time for a lesson with Celeste on a different matter, so reverted to my elf form and went to find her. To my surprise, she was not on the bridge, but in one of the bedrooms laying down and reading a holographic book. When she saw me enter, she gave a brief shout of surprise and the book vanished. Didn’t she already see me coming through the link?

She smiled slightly at that. “I wasn’t really paying attention to the links, sorry. Got distracted… So, what’s up?”

“I was hoping that you could help me understand my psychic power. I recently gave myself one after studying the auras of psychic humans.”

She nodded her head, sitting up on the bed. “Alright, but for this you should switch to a human body. While any race ‘can’ possess psychic talent, elves aren’t as strong with it as humans.” After she spoke, I quickly changed my body to that of a psychic human. “Okay, now, there are several different kinds of psionic abilities. Most of them aren’t as simple as telepathy, telekinesis, and the like. While they do have those abilities as aspects, they are… broader, you could say.”

“For instance, after I saw that you learned the psychic aura, I added information about it to my research list. One of the most common psychic powers among humans would be called ‘Manifestation’. While on the surface, this seems to resemble basic telepathy, it allows the user to manifest objects with their will.”

“Now, although psychic powers do not use mana, they have their own cost that must be paid. At first, you will feel a mild headache, which becomes a terrifying migraine if you continue exerting your power. If you stubbornly refuse to stop even at that point, blood vessels in your head begin to rupture, causing you to bleed from every orifice on your head. Naturally, the cost that comes after that, for those who refuse to stop, is a painful death.”

I winced slightly as she described these. Most likely, I’d have to go through many headaches before I trained it to the point where I could use the basic version of whatever ability I had freely. “Is there any way to tell what my psychic power is?”

“Well, if we had the equipment. I can make a basic scanner for your psychic power with some of the leftover metal in your grove. Since there were too many types of powers, with new ones being born regularly, I won’t be able to tell you exactly what it is. I will be able to tell you the general type, however. Following that, when you first practice it, you will unlock it as a skill that names and defines your power.”

I nodded my head. “How long will you need to build the scanner?”

“Just a few hours. I already have the plans for it saved, and the workstation doesn’t have anything else it’s working on right now. Until then, don’t try to force it to activate. If you do, you might try something well beyond your ability, and get the heaviest price.”

After saying that, Celeste had me absorb her into my grove so that she could get started on the scanner. Meanwhile, I began cultivating another of my basic affinities, focusing on Void Affinity this time. Though I was unable to make any real progress before Celeste let me know she was done, every little bit helps.

When Celeste appeared in front of me, she was holding a small metal object, like a handheld metal detector. “Okay. With this, I should be able to see what type of power you have.” She held the scanner up to my head and pressed a button. There were several beeps for a while before it settled down. “Hmm… spatial distortion type. So it should be some kind of power based on teleportation. That’s one of the hardest to train, really. But it doesn’t include any clairsentience, so it isn’t meant for long range teleporting. Alright, I think I have just the thing! Pull a rock out of your grove, just a small one. We need to measure your power.”

I shrugged, and did as she asked, pulling a pebble out of my grove and holding it in my right hand before she continued. “Next, try to channel energy from your brain into the pebble. It will feel different than mana, but similar. Both driven by thought and focus, but this is fueled by the mind instead of the soul.”

I nodded, and did my best to follow what she said. I could already feel a small headache forming as I focused all of my attention on the rock. Soon, it was as if I felt a transparent bubble around the rock. Out of curiosity, I tried moving it, and found that the rock did not move with it. So, instead I created another one in my other hand. With this, my headache was starting to get a bit worse, but as soon as I thought about it, the two orbs linked, and the rock appeared in my left hand. However, at that time, the headache I had been feeling rose dramatically, to the point where the ambient lights in Celeste’s room hurt.

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“Eeks… looks like your power is really draining.” Celeste spoke softly as she dimmed the lights. I tried to use my healing spell on myself, but found that it wouldn’t work. “I’ll teach you a formula to relieve psychic stress later.” After that, she went quiet for roughly a half hour until my headache subsided. When it did so, I found that there was a floating blue window in front of me.