World Seed

Author’s Corner: Okay! So, I have had no luck so far finding someone to help with the song(one guy offered, but never got back to me)… Sad author is sad. As such, I am using my last resort. Behold, Operation: Fundraiser! From now until the end of the arc, half of any donations made will be given to the person that creates the final song lyrics for the story's song. To make sure that there is at least something for the pool, adding in 1$ from myself. This way, there is guaranteed to be at least some prize.This way, people who want to help but, like me, are incapable of writing good lyrics, can leave a small donation to be added to the pool. Meanwhile, people who are able to come up with the lyrics can earn a bit of a reward for contributing to the story! As I said before, send me a PM on the forums, and we can discuss the requirements of the song. I don’t want to post anything that could be considered as a spoiler here.With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!Impressed with the results of the formation circles, I went back to the terminal and began reviewing the information that the scanners had gathered. Thankfully, Celeste had had a full week to get the spawn simulator program set up, while using the additional information gathered from the dungeons as a basis. However, this presented other problems.First, and most importantly, it was impossible to tell how these simulations would interact with time mana, as we don’t have a precedent for it. For all we knew, using a small amount of time mana could turn something that had been small and passive into a large, aggressive monster.The second problem, and only slightly less severe, was that the information seemed somewhat conflicting. There was one monster from the undead dungeon that had the exact same mana requirements as a goblin. The only thing I could come up with for that was that the environment could have an impact on what was spawned. And, from the notes Celeste had made in the program, she seemed to agree with that.So, we were back to the good old, trial and error routine. But, that’s what we’re here for, after all! For this, let’s start small… the smallest and weakest monster that the scanners had recorded, aside from slimes, was a goblin. As such, I memorized the mana requirements for the goblin on the terminal, and went around, filling in the numbers in the formations. Then, in the time mana circle, I set it to gather ten time mana.After setting the formations, and waiting for them to fill up, I waited for my mana to recover. Like my first time here, the time mana circle required a much higher mana cost to activate than any other, but now I also had a much higher pool of mana to pull from. As such, once my mana was fully recovered, I activated the formation, and watched as the mana gathered.Slowly, the mana began condensing at the center of the circle, until it became visible. Small, stubby green legs slowly appeared above the center of the formation, followed by a short, fat body. Sure enough… what emerged was a simple goblin. Upon seeing me, the little monster flew into a rage and charged with its bare hands. Killing it was far easier than killing the ettins I was used to practicing on.Next, I reset the formation, but this time increased the time mana to one hundred. Again, I went through the process. This time… another goblin appeared, but this one seemed old and wrinkled. Another failure… I sighed, killing the goblin as soon as it finished forming.Once more, this time with two hundred time mana, and slightly reduced levels from the other formations to make up the difference. Since I was no longer working with the goblin ‘code’ as the base, I readied myself for anything.