World Seed

Author’s Corner: Sorry for the fairly bland summary from the last chapter, it just didn’t feel like it’d be good to write in two weeks of “I sat there and played with Tokemi while everyone else went off on adventure!”. Please forgive author-sama!“Daddy, hurry up!” Tokemi called out as she tugged on my arm. It was time for the trip to the Qu’Lopti world, and of course the little loli was ‘helping’ me get to the bridge with a smile on her face. As for her calling me daddy… I blame you, Sharon. You got her started on calling you and Yin as mommy, and me as daddy! But it’s just so cute… I can’t be upset over it.On the other hand… Yo has really started to mature. She doesn’t seem like the same young girl anymore, mentally, and instead has ‘grown up’ into a teenage mindset. Now, if she wasn’t such a battle junkie, that would be a good thing. Instead, she keeps trying to convince Kismet, Sharon, Yin, or even me to spar with her. Of course, we can’t do that now because we’re leaving the planet, and any of us fighting on a ship could cause a lot of damage.Soon, the two of us arrived at the bridge, to be greeted by the knowing smiles of the crew members who saw Tokemi dragging me. The little girl could definitely be considered as being dependant on me right now, as I was the only one that could help with her time hiccups. By now, she almost refused to go anywhere without me. I really needed that backup item that would dispel her time hiccups automatically, and I had a plan for it… but there was a problem. Most materials weren’t capable of holding time-related enchantments, because time itself was too powerful.So instead, I had to wait until I had almost ten grams of orichalcum. According to Celeste, this was the best material for enchantments involving time. At least, until the epic materials like godsteel, devilstone, or blood ore were available. Thankfully, with my grove absorbing both time mana and metal mana, I am slowly producing those rare materials.“Ahem.” Celeste ‘cleared her throat’ from next to me to get my attention and snap me out of my thoughts. “Awaiting orders, captain.”“Right… Has the navigational data been input?” I looked to Celeste, and she nodded her head. “Then…” I tapped the intercom button in my chair, while Tokemi climbed up onto my lap. “Hey, that tickles. Wait, this thing’s on. Everyone, ignore that, and prepare for FTL. This will be our longest journey yet, and I don’t know when we will return. At the very least, it will not be for a few years. While journeying, I suggest for people to do their ‘standby’ training, if your skillset possesses one. Otherwise… find a game or something fun to do.”Tapping the button again, I turned off the intercom, and looked to the crew on the bridge. “Alright, take us out.” I still felt like I was forgetting something, though. Well, if it was anything important, Celeste would have reminded me.After the ship went into subspace, we stayed sitting there for about five minutes before Tokemi began yawning in boredom, laying her head against my chest. Taking that as the universal indicator for nap time, I chuckled slightly, before getting up and moving to my room so that I could lay her in my bed. With Tokemi taken care of, I got to work on my own projects. “Can I come in for a moment?” Or I could see what Celeste wants first.Instead of letting her in, I stepped out of the room, so as not to disturb the sleeping fox girl. “What’s the matter?” I asked her curiously, but she shook her head.“Nothing major. I just need to visit the Toy Chest for a little while, so that I can cultivate the Dural Affinity. It will make my factory run much more smoothly if I have it set on a dural foundation.” She explained with a smile, and I recalled her saying previously that dural was like a super mana-conductive dirt.“Alright. Need any help clearing out monsters that might have spawned?” When I asked, she shook her head.“No, I should be fine by myself even if another jack appeared. But leave the portal open so that I can come back when I’m ready.”I thought about it, and decided to put the portal in my closet. If she was cultivating a new affinity, then she’d probably be in there for a few days. Can’t just leave a portal lying around in the middle of the hall.Once Celeste was through the portal, and I popped a pill to ease the resulting headache, I then got started on my own projects. “Captain?” Or… I can see what Ackbar wants first…“Yes…?”“I have the final reports from the dungeon teams on Hydra ready to be reviewed.” He spoke up from the other side of the door.“Upload them to the system and I’ll go over them later…” Seriously, we had over a year of travel coming up! I could put off reading reports for a couple hours.“Very well, Captain.” I made sure that I could hear his feet walking away before I started once again to work on my projects…...Anyone else? No…? Finally! Opening up the new guild interface, I looked for any explanations. However, the only button available was ‘Create Guild’... I didn’t want to press that yet in case it was automatic and permanent! Malthan, this is a prayer.