World Seed: New Rules Read online

  Using my X-Ray vision on my eye, I found that they indeed did not run. However, there was a cave system underground that they were hiding in. I could work with this. I landed down on the ground as softly as I could, and had my plasma donuts tunnel into the ground, moving towards their little cave. Don’t play hide and seek with the guy that can see you underground.

  Once my little bundles of death were just above their cave, I created four more and had them follow down the same holes. That way, they could break through all at once. It was a bit distracting to control eight magnetic bundles at once, but still not nearly as bad as trying to rotate one at high speeds.

  As soon as they broke through the ceiling of the cave, I unleashed Operation: Pain Rain. Naturally, this meant me shooting them all with plasma lasers. Thankfully I sent in an extra batch of death, because my accuracy was only about two out of three shots at this level of control. Still, that meant that all four tigers were quickly dispatched or rendered incapable of fleeing.

  You have leveled up!

  Now, for the boring part, scanning them and experimenting! Moving over to the one killed by my laser, I put a large paw on it and focused my Mana Sense to sweep through it for a few minutes, making sure that Celeste and I could commit it all to memory before stopping. Then it was time to shift into the new form.

  Although I have the new body, I wasn’t sure which aspect of its aura enabled it to swim through the ground. Typically, the easiest way to figure it out would be to study the aura while it used its ability, but that wasn’t really an option for something that wanted to eat your face. So, the alternative was getting the ability yourself and studying your own aura while you fumbled around to get it right!

  Dive into the ground… come on, Falenel, you can do this. Don’t be a chicken tiger… I took a deep breath, steadied myself, took another deep breath, and just said to hell with it before diving head first at the ground.

  Falenel used Headbutt! It wasn’t very effective.

  -5 HP

  Damn rock! Who said you were allowed to hurt my head?! I growled at it and swiped, but this time my paw actually passed through the rock. Seriously, Malthan? That’s just not fair! I groaned out loud, which sounded strange from a large black cat, and tried again. This time, I kept a constant focus on my aura as I tried to move through the rock. Come on, Falenel… You are a rock, be the rock… I could hear Celeste laughing in the corners of my mind as I closed my eyes and jumped again.

  This time, I soon felt as if I had dived into a pool, cool water brushing against my fur. Considering I was a big cat right now, this felt very strange. Opening my eyes revealed nothing, but my aura was lighting up in certain areas that should indicate the racial ability activating. Scan scan scan scan scan!

  I quickly memorized the pattern for the magic ability, before cheating and using my Earth Manipulation to get myself back out before I ran out of air. Next, I changed into my wolf form, and tried to copy the same aura aspects I had noted down from the cliff tiger. My light gray fur immediately turned black, but it was of little concern for now. Again I dived in, and again I found myself in the pool of liquid earth. Sweet!

  New Spell Unlocked!

  Aspect of the Traveler - Nature Magic - ★☆

  By studying the abilities of various animals, you have discovered the power to copy their magical means of transportation.

  Mana Cost: Varies

  I began dog paddling through the mountain, and went down to where I had left the four dead panthers. Once I was there, I returned to my half elf body and summoned Yo. “Alright, Celeste… how do we purify them?”

  I had much less sentimental attachment to my slime than I did either of the birds. Worst case scenario, I lost Yo and had to make a new advanced water slime. It wouldn’t take much work to get it to the point where Yo is at right now. “Right! First, use your Mana Sense to latch on to the aura of one of the target creatures. Then, with your Soul Arts, pull out all of the memory, skills, and personality. The suggested way to do this was to filter it by grabbing a buffer zone in the aura, and holding firmly onto it while you pass it through the rest of the aura. Like squeezing a cloth to remove the water.”

  I nodded my head, but didn’t know how to find the buffer zone in the aura. So, I just began poking around randomly until I found a part of the aura the did not show me any memories or emotions. I really did not need to see a mating scene… there is not enough brain bleach in the galaxy to scrub those images out. Anyways, once I had a hold of this part of the aura, I kept a firm grip on it and began running it through the rest of the aura, like Celeste said.

  I should mention again how big and complicated an aura is. Imagine tracking a single drop of blood and moving it throughout your entire vascular system, then get it to move along your nervous system, and your respiratory system, and every other system. It took half an hour before I was done scraping off memories and the like. The aura now appeared pitiful, barely a fraction of what it used to be. However, it was essentially an entire buffer zone.

  New Ability Unlocked!

  Purify Soul - Soul Arts - ★

  You have learned how to purify the soul, removing the memories and personality of what it once was to leave only the purest essence.

  “Okay.. now, to put it into Yo, you’ll need to use your mana to create a link between the slime and the tiger with your mana. Make sure not to let this link pass through yourself, or it will be tainted with your own skills and memories. Once you have the link established, siphon off as much or as little energy from the aura as you want.”

  I nodded again, and sent out a strand of mana to Yo’s slime core, then focused to connect the other end of the strand to the tiger. It was rather difficult to not let it pass through my own body, since I hadn’t done that before. However, after a few moments of focus, I set the connection. Then, I began pulling the aura out of the tiger and pushing it into the slime. When I opened my eyes, there was a misty white light traveling along where I had established the invisible link.

  “According to my estimates, the full aura that you finished with should amount to the first six levels. If you get the same result with all of them, and use the full auras, Yo should level up enough to become a mimic slime.”

  I nodded, and honestly still had hesitation about using the full soul. But, at least I wasn’t using its personality or memories. Call me a hypocrite, but I consider that stuff important. Focusing on the task at hand, I continued pushing the aura into Yo until there was nothing left, but there was no visible reaction. When I scanned his aura with my Mana Sense and touched his soul, I found that there really was a large buffer zone now.

  New Ability Unlocked!

  Empower Soul - Soul Arts - ★

  You have learned how to transfer purified soul essence into the aura of another living creature.

  “Celeste, is there any relation between the buffer zone and skill growth?”

  “Hmm? Well, yeah. If you have a buffer, your skills will be able to increase more easily, because otherwise half of the effort has to go into strengthening your aura to support the increased skill. I thought that was obvious?”

  I could only let out a sigh, shaking my head as I went around and repeated the process with the remaining three tigers.

  Chapter 27: The Way Back

  After I repeated the Empower Soul process using all six cliff tigers, I confirmed with Celeste that there was no danger in leaving the bodies here without their souls. To be honest, I was still worried about potentially unleashing a zombie plague. There are reasons that most games label soul magic as something that should not be tampered with lightly.

  Once I was done, I noticed a change in Yo. His entire body had begun to shake, and with my Aura Sight I could see as various elements all rushed into his body at once. From what I had learned, this should be the moment where he evolves into a mimic slime. As such, I was not in a hurry to leave, and simply sat on a nearby rock as I waited for this change to complete. I had considered putting Yo into my g
rove, but the influx of mana could make the process fail, and he’d end up absorbing a lot of my grove even if it succeeded.

  Unlike Yang’s evolution, this process lasted for over two minutes, the giant blue water slime shrinking down and changing to a clear green color. The last change, though… had me a bit worried. Yo’s slime core, which was a medium grade Seed of Water, developed cracks along its body before shattering. Instead, a tiny green pellet, almost invisible in its body, appeared within it.

  The slime which had once been big enough to occupy an entire office was now smaller than most dogs. It also no longer held a strong water aura, and had the same kind of mixed aura as anything else. With Celeste’s help, I began recalling all of the facts about mimic slimes that I had learned in the past.

  First of all, their evolution to slime person can happen at any time, not dependent on levels. The only deciding factor is their intelligence, which can be improved in two ways. You can either slowly increase a slime’s intelligence by training it, or have it absorb other creatures. However, these creatures have to have died recently enough to still possess their soul, so that the mimic slime can copy it fully. Before it evolves, it can learn the form of any number of items, but can only retain the form of the last creature it devoured.

  Mimic slimes can only learn the forms of primitive items, at the level of gunpowder firearms or lower. They can’t replicate technology or runic magic enchantments, but can replicate arcane enchantments. While they are able to mimic blades, they’re much better suited to mimic blunt weapons instead… what else…

  Ah, the only other thing I could think of right away was that mimics are far more durable than normal slimes. They possess a degree of magic resistance, and their core is far smaller than a typical slime’s. That will come in handy eventually. For now, I pulled out a simple staff from my grove, and set it in front of Yo. Yang had been mass producing these lately, and had been proud of her ability to make them, so I should use some before they fill up my grove.

  The small green slime moved over in front of the staff, as if staring at it, before its body slowly began spreading over it. The slime gunk soon covered the entire staff, and I watched as the wood inside began dissolving, as if under some kind of acid. I shuddered in memory of my own experience with slime acid, but this seemed different. Rather than melting down the body, it was the aura that was being consumed. The body dissolving was simply a side effect.

  Within moments, the entire staff had been consumed, but in its place was a translucent green staff of identical size and shape. When I reached down to pick it up, it felt a bit slippery, and wobbled slightly. Probably needs to absorb more items to get texture and firmness down.

  Now that Yo has evolved, all of my companions should be around level 20, though we each have different skills. The closest two are myself and Yin, since she can utilize Wind Affinity as she flies around and fights. There’s also Yang, the crafting bird girl, and now the mimic slime Yo. I wasn’t really sure how the party would stack up, but it felt really neat to have everyone with their own roles.

  Anyways, back on track! I still need a bit more experience before I can head back and sell my Technomancy skill for gold. I strapped Yo to my back, since there wasn’t as much reason to keep him in the grove now, and walked along the mountain some more while hunting cliff tigers. The next group I came across was dispatched a bit more easily, now that I knew their attack patterns. All I had to do was create a few plasma death bundles and wait for one to pop up before zapping it.

  After I was done killing them and earning their delicious experience, I had Yo absorb the body of one so that he had the ability to turn into a living creature that was not a slow moving mass of goo. The process went pretty much the same as it had with the staff, and when it was done, a tiger made of slime was walking along beside me. Every now and then it would dive into the earth using the cliff tiger’s ability, as if playing around, but it would always come back up when it was done.

  Since I only needed the two groups to get all of the experience for what I wanted, I went back to the town while running alongside Yo. Cliff tigers were roughly just as fast as wolves, but I thought it looked cooler to have two cliff tigers running side by side, with one being black and the other made of green slime. As usual when I approached the city in an a creature form, the guards immediately went for their weapons. I barely had time to change back before they had guns pointed at me. “I’m a druid, don’t shoot!”

  They froze momentarily, still with their guns pointed, before sighing and putting them away. I had Yo turn back into a staff and strapped him to my back before calling out Yin and Yang. “We going all the way back to the other city, or is there a Skill Shard place here?” I asked the ever helpful Ai.

  Celeste spoke up from the companion bracelets. “There’s a Skill Master Guild in the capital, but not here. You’ll need to make the flight back.”

  I let out a groan as she said that. “Is there something nearby there that we could use to work on your aura?”

  “Well, you could hunt dozens of wolves, but that would take ages. Assuming you don’t want to go back to the forest, so your best bet would be to head east after you leave the city. The rock beasts are weaker, but move in larger groups. These are monsters, so expect them to have resistance to your Earth Manipulation.”

  I nodded my head as she said that, and walked through the city with Yin and Yang. Like usual, Yang was hugging my arm and pressing her twin peaks against me. I swear, I did not walk slower in order to enjoy that… it was just awkward walking with someone attached! Yeah, that… though the giggling AI didn’t seem to believe me.

  “Hey, I ship Falenel and Yang.” She said in my head, with a wide grin on her face. “Besides, it’s fun to watch you get all flustered like that.”

  It’s not fun for me! Let’s just get going. Sooner we get there, the sooner we can get your body and soul gem or whatever That got her attention, and as soon as we were out the other side of the city, the three of us flew off into the distance. This time, I pulled out my handy plasma pistol as well as one that had appeared in my grove when I absorbed Legion, and simply used those to blast whatever I came across. Since I had already gotten my plasma bolts working, there was no need to go through the extra trouble of using them while flying.

  The extra buffer experience could only help me, so I saw no point in wasting the chances they gave me. Yang frowned slightly every time I killed something, but she knew it was necessary. Although she liked to remain a pacifist by nature, she accepted that I was by no means a pacifist. Fighting meant experience, experience meant I could stay alive with how the world was changing.

  Aside from a few brief pauses on the way back to fight some wolves and leave a trail or scattered bodies(when I managed to hit them) in my wake, the flight back to town was a rather boring one. Every now and then, Yin would literally fly circles around me to play around while Yang was just happy to fly alongside me. As for Yo… well, Yo was a staff, and remained a staff the entire time, not much to report.

  When we arrived in the city, I had the two of them walk with me again, since there wasn’t a need to send them back to the grove. First stop, the Skill Master’s Guild to sell my soul, then to find where I can buy a Deus Ex body. Walking around, I followed the mental map provided by Celeste to arrive in front of a large cylindrical building, maybe ten stories with large glass windows all along its side. “Well, it’s flashy at least.” I said with a shrug as I entered.

  Inside, there was a stunningly attractive elf receptionist behind the counter. “Hello, and welcome to the Skill Master’s Guild. Are you here to make a deposit, or to purchase?” She asked with a practiced business smile.

  “Uhm.. deposit.” It took me a moment to recover. I swear, I need to build up a resistance to hot girls, or my life will soon be ruined.

  “Very well. What level of skill are you interested in depositing?”

  I thought about it again… I could get twenty five gold if I stored my advanced Man
a Signature skill… “Don’t bother, Falenel.” Celeste spoke up beside me with a smile. “You don’t have enough buffer for that one yet. Just stick with an Intermediate skill for now.”

  I nodded my head, and looked to the receptionist before speaking. “Intermediate level.”

  She smiled again, before pushing a button to call down an elevator. Well, it acts like an elevator, but it is just a metal disc in a large glass tube. “Very well, please proceed up to level four. An attendant will help you through the process.”

  I walked over towards the elevator, but since Yin and Yang wouldn’t fit in it with me, I sent them back to my grove for now. Instead, I just watched the scenery as I went up floor by floor. “How much more buffer would I have needed to store an Advanced level skill here?”

  “About twice as much as you have now, at least. Advanced skills take up a lot more aura space than Intermediate ones.” Celeste spoke up from next to me, before I arrived on the fourth floor. This time, the attendant was male, and approached me as I exited the elevator.