World Seed

Author’s Corner: Howdy everyone!

When I got back to my room, I immediately began cultivating. My goal was to have all of my affinities at no less than 15% by the time we reach Gerin. Given my previous speed, I did not feel like that was too much to hope for. Aside from leaving my room every now and then to either stretch my legs or grab a bite to eat, I continued cultivating almost nonstop.

A couple of weeks after we left Earth, Celeste had us all come out to the bridge, so that we could drop out of subspace. Apparently, she had found a desert planet with an atmosphere, so she wanted us to take a look to see if the flower I needed for my psychic stress relief potion would be here. When we all met on the bridge, there was not much difference between us now and how we had been when we first left.

Since Sharon and I rarely saw each other outside of meals, there had not been many chances for us to talk more and get to know each other. Though, she would often tell me about how Chrome and Jasmine were doing. Chrome’s growth rate was far beyond normal, and after a mere two weeks he looked like he had gained a full six months in his growth. No longer was he able to be held in Sharon’s arms so easily, as he had become too big and heavy. Instead, he would often follow her around while listening to music with at least one of his heads.

As for Jasmine, her growth rate proved to be much slower, and she was still Sharon’s hug pillow. Every now and then, I would see her flying around the ship, using her wings to help her run along the walls as she played with the druidess. Unlike myself, Sharon did not focus much on her cultivation and training during these two weeks. Then again, she didn’t really need to. Her fighting style focused on her animals, rather than elemental control.

Yo was… well, she was Yo. For the first week, she was content to spend her time playing basic arcade games. After that, she started to get bored and wandered around the ship, before wandering into my room. Every night, she would sneak into my bed and wrap her arms around me while I slept. It was a bit awkward, to be honest. When I asked her why she just said that my mana tasted good. At least she seems to be slowly growing up, and now had the mentality of an early teenager, with Celeste teaching her basic information. Sadly, she still insists on calling me Papa.

Yin and Yang still remained in my grove, though Yin was there mainly to comfort Yang, who was scared of flying in the ship. I would pull them out every day or two to share a meal with everyone, which they appreciated, but afterwards Yang would be eager to go back into the grove. After I spent a few days refining my elements, I made a small house for Yang in my grove, a simple stone one that offered plenty of room for her and Yin.

By now, I had gotten almost all of my affinities to 15%, with the exception of earth, fire, lightning, and light. Each time I practiced an element, I would make a seed of that element and pulled it out of my grove to train. Then, when I was done cultivating the element to 15%, I would reabsorb the seed back into my grove. Though I wasn’t able to perfectly absorb the mana, resulting in not absorbing the same amount that was used whenever I made the seed, it was still better than nothing.

When Celeste brought us out of subspace, there was that same burst of light and movement, and we were in a new star system. Though, she had slowed us down considerably before dropping out, to make sure we landed as close as possible to the planet. When we emerged, we could just barely see the yellow planet in the distance. “This planet doesn’t match one of the ones from my records, so I can’t tell you anything about it. Most likely, it will be colonized some time in the future, and its terrain shifted to be more friendly for the inhabiting species.”

“However, from the scans I took while in subspace, it meets all of the atmospheric requirements to have the burning mind flower grow on it. Unfortunately, those same requirements make it a harsh planet for either of you to move around on. The temperatures can get as high as eight hundred degrees during the day, but rapidly cools at night until it get under a hundred below zero. Either of these temperatures would prove fatal to an elf or human.”

Sharon furrowed her brow after hearing Celeste explain. “Then how do you expect us to go down and get this plant?”

“I don’t.” The Deus Ex smiled. “I’ll take the ship in and scan the surface as we do a flyover, and then if we find it, I’ll go down myself. We do have exploration suits for the both of you, and they are enchanted to resist temperatures far exceeding these, but it would still be better for me to go myself.”

I nodded my head at that. Aside from her, the only other person that could likely survive out there without special gear was Yo… and I didn’t trust Yo to pick a flower without eating it. “Alright… Let’s see if there is anything else on this planet that could prove useful.”